In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Prime Directive is a guiding principle of Starfleet, prohibiting its members from interfering with the internal and natural development of alien civilizations. The Prime Directive applies particularly to civilizations which are below a certain threshold of technological, scientific and cultural development; preventing starship crews from using their superior technology to impose their own values or ideals on them.
The British Prime Minister also always holds the title of First Lord of the Treasury and is a member of the Privy Council. The current Prime Minister, Theresa May, a Conservative, just this week survived a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons over what many see as her poor handling of the Brexit controversy.
In Australia and New Zealand, an outdoor toilet is known as a “dunny”. “Privy”, an archaic variant of “private”, is used in North America, Scotland, and northern England. “Bog” is common throughout Britain (used to coin the neologism “tree bog”). The name “little house” (as ty bach) continues as a euphemism for any toilet in both the Welsh language and the Welsh English dialect. Other terms include “back house”, “house of ease”, and “house of office”. The last was common in 17th-century England and appeared in Samuel Pepys’s Diary on numerous occasions.
One early term for an outdoor privy was “jakes”. In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Earl of Kent, angry at Oswald, insults him: “I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the walls of a jakes with him.”
The excavated area under a privy was commonly called a cesspit; in England, it was sometimes known as a ‘gong’. When the pit would fill with solid waste, it would need to be emptied by hand. This was a job commonly performed by individuals known as ‘gong farmers’.
Unsurprisingly, gong farmers were exceptionally well-paid, sometimes earning in a day what most laborers earned in a week. They also could keep any valuables that might be found while cleaning the pits.
A mudlark was a person who would search the muddy shores of the River Thames at low tide for anything that could be sold; and sometimes, when occasion arose, pilfering from river traffic. More recently, metal-detectorists and other individuals searching the foreshore for historic artefacts have described themselves as “mudlarks”. In London, a license is required from the Port of London Authority for this activity and it is illegal to search for or remove artefacts of any kind from the foreshore without one.
The Thames Barrier prevents the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. When needed, it is raised during high tide; at low tide it can be opened to restore the river’s flow towards the sea. Operational since 1984, it has been used 183 times as of 2017 and has survived 15 boat collisions without serious damage.
A major rise of the Thames in 1965 flooded British government records archives in London, resulting in the ruination and loss of tens of thousands of documents. For many years, “lost in the flood of '65” was a common response of civil servants - whether or not truthful - to requests for public documents in Great Britain.
The name “London” is an etymological mystery. The best explanation appears to be that it is derived from an early British Celtic term, possibly something along the lines of “Londonjon”, which appears to have turned into “Londinium” in Latin, and then gradually evolved into “London”.
Nor is it clear where the “r” came from in many of the versions of “London” in romance languages, such as “Londres” in French.
William the Conqueror constructed the Tower of London, the first of the many Norman castles in England to be rebuilt in stone, in the southeastern corner of London, to intimidate the native inhabitants.
Legend has it that “If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.” To prevent this, a captive group (usually six) ravens are kept permanently in the Tower.
The Baltimore Ravens NFL franchise was established in 1995, when then-owner Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore. (Baltimore’s original NFL team, the Colts, moved to Indianapolis in 1984.)
The name “Ravens” was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven. Poe spent part of his early career in Baltimore and is buried there. The name was chosen by fans in a phone-in poll; the two names that finished second and third in the poll were the Americans and the Marauders.
The Cleveland Browns are the only NFL team which does not wear a team logo on their helmets.
The Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion occurred on the afternoon of Friday, October 20, 1944. The resulting gas leak, explosion and fires killed 130 people and destroyed a one square mile area on Cleveland, Ohio’s east side. This event plays a major role in Don Robertson’s novel The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread.
The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916, in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an act of sabotage by German agents to destroy American-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I. This incident, which happened prior to American entry into World War I, is also notable for causing damage to the Statue of Liberty. The term “Black Tom” originally referred to an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island. The island was artificial, created by landfill around “black tom” rock, a local hazard to navigation.
In the 1981 John Carpenter near-future sf thriller Escape from New York, the Statue of Liberty has been turned into a fortress and observation post for the U.S. Police Force, which oversees the prison into which all of Manhattan Island has been transformed.
The escape in the film is that of the President of the United States, who drops into New York in an escape pod from a hijacked Air Force One, which crashes soon after. The concept was used again in the Harrison Ford film Air Force One, although the actual airplane does not have an escape pod, or a parachute deck, either.
The screenwriters might have been inspired by a pressurized pod made for the comfort of Prime Minister Winston Churchill for his Avro York transport, although he never used it.
Pianist George Winston is best known for a series of “rural folk piano” piano albums he recorded in the 1980s for Windham Hill Records, including “Autumn,” “Winter Into Spring,” and “December.” Winston plays in other musical styles, as well, including stride piano and New Orleans R&B piano. He has recorded two albums of songs composed by Vince Guaraldi, as well as an album of piano versions of songs by The Doors.
Winston is also known for dressing very informally while performing – he doesn’t wear shoes while performing (playing in stocking feet), and would often perform in a flannel shirt and jeans.
Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, has been played in film and TV adaptations by a variety of actors, including Edmond O’Brien, Eddie Albert, Peter Cushing and John Hurt. In radio productions, David Niven, Richard Widmark and Christopher Eccleston have played the role. An opera version starred baritone Simon Keenlyside.
Eccleston Square Hotel is an independently owned boutique hotel located in Pimlico, London and is known for its technology features provided to guests. It has been referred to as Europe’s most high-tech hotel and has been featured as one of Five Hotels With Top-Notch Technology by Forbes Magazine.